Norwegian Ambassador Appointment Is An Embarrassment

National Public Radio ran an interesting story on June 17 about the recent painfully embarrassing U.S. Senate nomination hearing for President Obama’s nominee to be ambassador to Norway – wealthy Democratic fundraiser George Tsunis.

With so many people of Norwegian and Scandinavian ancestry residing in the Post-Journal’s circulation area, this is worth commenting on.

At one point “Tsunis described one of Norway’s major political parties – a member of the current coalition government– as a ‘fringe element’ that ‘spewed hatred,'” the NPR article stated.

Senator John McCain and others could scarcely contain their exasperation at the ignorance of Tsunis, who has never visited Norway. Minnesota Senators Al Franken and Amy Klobuchar (both Democrats) now oppose the nomination at the behest of the Norwegian-American community in their state.

The political party Tsunis was baselessly disparaging is the Progress Party, the most important party in Norway in today’s day and age as they have the strongest position against the self-destructive mass immigration policies that plague native Norwegians and so many other Europeans.

I don’t oppose Obama’s nomination of Tsunis due to the fact that he’s never been to Norway per se, but more so because he was revealingly so quick to negatively stereotype a patriotic pro-Norway party like the Progress Party without knowing what he is talking about.

Any U.S. ambassador to Norway needs to enthusiastically embrace the growing nationalism movement across Europe, not invoke mindless p.c. dogma mischaracterizing them as ‘fringe elements’ who ‘spew hatred.’

In Sweden the Sweden Democrats are making great strides, and in Denmark the Danish People’s Party is doing well, recently growing their representation in the European Union parliament. (Outside of Scandinavia, see also the wonderful growth of UKIP in England and the National Front in France, to cite just two examples.)

These are heartening developments, and the U.S. and its official representatives should be encouraging – not discouraging – the native peoples of Scandinavia and Europe as they rise and stand up for themselves. Thus, I urge Senator Gillibrand, Senator Schumer, and Representative Reed to oppose Obama’s Tsunis nomination.